It's A Long, Rocky Road To Charter Government

February 5, 1989|By Tom Schroder of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE — County charters do not happen overnight.

Steps that counties follow to create charters seem simple enough, but reality is always different. It can take years for a county to decide what kind of charter it wants and to get citizens to vote on it.

Orange and Seminole counties recently became charter governments. Both still are battling in court to hold onto their charters.

Seminole County became a charter government Jan. 3, after arguments about the division of power, what the citizens wanted and other questions.

When counties create charters, they set up citizens' committees to draft the document. In Seminole, one member of the committee has sued the county to overturn the charter.

Committee member Bob Webster contends the charter is flawed. He wanted to have the Seminole/Brevard Circuit Court review his arguments before January, but his attorneys couldn't get a hearing in time.

Now, Seminole must face Webster in court at the end of the month. Webster has said Seminole's charter does not allow for a separation of power in government because county commissioners, or the legislative branch, hire and fire the county manager, or executive branch.

Questions about Orange County's charter, first voted on in 1986, will take that county to the state Supreme Court in March. The 5th District Court of Appeal has ruled Orange County's charter invalid, valid and then invalid.

It is Webster who is behind the challenge to Orange County's charter, too. Webster has claimed Orange County's charter vote was improper and that the charter does not set up Orange County's government as required by state law.

Orange County is continuing to operate under the charter until the issue is resolved by the Supreme Court.

But Kurt Spitzer, executive director of the Florida Association of Counties, said Orange and Seminole counties don't fit the statewide picture in which other counties have peacefully become charter governments.

Early charters across the state were bitterly contested, Spitzer said, but counties have learned to set up charters that don't change much of what already exists. The idea is to get a simple charter passed first, Spitzer said, and worry about significant change later.

''It depends on what the charter says,'' Spitzer said. ''Historically, charters in Florida have attempted to really re-invent the wheel. Without some overwhelming problems in the community, those charters have not passed.''